Columns by Per Bylund

Column by Per Bylund.
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For the five-year anniversary, I wrote a column about the value of a site like Strike The Root. I argued that the main problem to making anarchism an attractive social theory is its lack of guarantees. Rather than basing our worldview on the illusion of a stable and never-changing core to which we can fix and around which we can organize our...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
I recently participated in an online discussion on gay marriage, an issue that was stated to be “such a sure thing” that my views could be dismissed at the outset. And, I suspect, laughed at. Why? Because, it was argued, government’s opening up the state-enforced institution of marriage to gay couples “decreases” discrimination...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
My previous two articles on minarchism versus anarchism [1, 2], and why minarchism is “evil,” have stirred up quite a debate online.[1] This was expected, since minarchists desperately want to see themselves as radical (whereas compared to anarchists they clearly are not) and anarchists almost as desperately seek alliances and ideological kindred...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
John deLaubenfels responds to my previous column on minarchists being “the enemy.” His response is a case in point. Even though it is surely not his intent, his “quick response” directly supports the thesis of my original column. This is also true with most of the e-mails and comments I have seen by those disagreeing...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
Libertarians want to roll back government to a much less oppressive size. In this goal, libertarian minarchists and anarchists often stand together and aim for the same goals, at least short term. In a limited sense, this may not be such a stupid idea. After all, pushing back the powers of government is a good thing, is it not?
But what...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
News agencies report on another potential nuclear threat from North Korea, which has developed an advanced program for enriching uranium. Granted, nuclear weapons are extremely dangerous – and they are especially dangerous in the hands of nutcases such as Kim Jong-il. However, the media misses the point as they urgently run in the direction pointed out...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
Election Day means there are a lot of people walking around proudly carrying a sticker on their collar or lapel: “I Voted.” It bothered me at first that they would take pride in such ugly, immoral, and destructive behavior and that they so urgently wanted me to see that they had cast a ballot. I do not particularly like that these...

By Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
What is fascinating in this day and age is how the definition of previously well-known concepts mysteriously have changed. I’m not thinking of e.g. the word “defense,” which nowadays seems to have a much broader meaning and includes waging wars, occupying foreign nations, and having permanent military bases in almost 200 foreign...

By Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
Conservatives and libertarians often claim an inherent value in the Rule of Law, a concept that to anarchists may seem a bit strange and, frankly, quite evil. Of course, most of us would accept the notion that predictable, principle-kind laws are much better than arbitrary rulings by a power elite (be it one man or many). Some would even claim...

By Per Bylund
Exclusive to STR
These are troublesome times: the police state is literally only months away (if not here already), Big Brother already has full control of what everybody’s up to, and governments wage numerous wars while taxing their poor populations to ridiculous degrees. Yet in the midst of all this darkness, after a century of endarkening, there are signs of...

Exclusive to STR
The official truth is that voting is a glorious thing, that it may even be a democratic duty. After all, most free countries have a history of bloodshed and war, which was the only way of finally getting rid of terror and oppression to establish Democracy: where we, the people, rule ourselves and there are no kings, lords, or absolute rulers. In such a world, are we...

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There have been endless discussions among libertarians "even the anarchist variety" about the meaning of voting. Somehow, it seems, we cannot agree on what it means to vote: Is it self-defense to support the "lesser evil" or is it not? And even if we believe it is not, many libertarians cannot help casting a ballot on Election Day; they cannot resist...

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April 28, 2008
It is no news that politics act centralizing. In Europe, the free regions subjected to a distant, and therefore practically powerless, monarch are forever gone, and have step by step been forced to give up whatever powers they had. The nation states took over, but are now giving way to the super-national entity called the European Union.
The same development has...

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February 18, 2008
Youngsters dressed in black wearing facial masks setting another McDonald's restaurant on fire. Some of them trying to make the full body of protesters attack the police and innocent passers-by. Others are throwing rocks at whatever is close enough to hit. Still others, with spray cans "borrowed" from daddy's garage, making sure the riot leaves marks...

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I have received a number of e-mails from frustrated and stooped Ron Paul supporters asking me to investigate the possibility of vote fraud in New Hampshire and write about it. The polls showed that Ron Paul might get at least double digits in the "Live Free or Die" primary; with the help of independents he could perhaps end up at second or third place. Yet when all the...

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December 17, 2007
There should be no doubt that Ron Paul and his presidential campaign have become a phenomenon, both among Republicans and independents and among libertarians. Also, there is no doubt Ron Paul running for president and bravely and clearly arguing a libertarian case in many issues attracts a lot of people from the "mainstream" to the libertarian movement...

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November 29, 2007
The anarchist movement never ceases to amaze me. I constantly face people who are anarchists and have been anarchists for a very long time and know everything about the great anarchist thinkers, yet who merely wish to replace the state with something rather similar but with the prefix "anarchist." I also receive numerous death threats from anarchists...

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November 26, 2007
Claiming that inequality is the greatest threat to liberty could easily be misunderstood, yet I proudly and sincerely make that claim. I do not mean it in the as common as ignorant state socialist kind of way: that everybody should have exactly the same amount of assets. In essence, such a statement calls for violent and forceful redistribution from the...

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October 15, 2007
When the multi-billionaire industrialist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel died, he left a will dedicating all of his fortune to supporting great science. He wanted to see an annual prize in his name to the greatest innovators and scientists--the ones "who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" according to...

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September 24, 2007
People arguing for the stateless society, i.e. the abolishment of the state along with whatever coercive hierarchies in society, sometimes find themselves in a position where they hesitate to use the word best describing their position: anarchism. The reason, and this is often explicitly stated, is that anarchism often makes people think of violence, terror,...

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September 4, 2007
One thing that the ongoing Ron Paul mania among libertarians and Republicans of the so-called "Old Right" has clearly shown is that there is a great divide in the GOP. This should be no surprise to frequent readers of STR--political parties are founded on and thrive upon the notion that society is in conflict and therefore needs a centralized power to...

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August 20, 2007
As a former partyarch and political scientist, I have been following the Ron Paul Revolution campaign closely--as closely as is possible on the Internet without actually participating. Even though I do not at all support party activism or political involvement, the extent of Paul's grassroots support brings hope to the nation and the world. If so many support...

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April 2, 2007
It is rather amazing how fast a cultural heritage of multiple centuries can simply vanish in a few years. Western society, as most of us should be aware, is a product of the continental and cultural awakening called the Enlightenment. Essentially, this period meant people awoke from centuries, if not millennia, of religious unconsciousness to embrace philosophy,...

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March 12, 2007
Libertarians generally identify with laissez-faire and the free market. Wherever the state isn't involved, i.e. where all actions are voluntary and peaceful, is freedom and thus in its very essence ideal. It doesn't really matter what people do, only how they do it; everything is just fine and dandy if individuals act voluntarily and let other people choose for...

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January 2, 2007
Being a libertarian anarchist, I have come to a terrifying conclusion: most anarchists are pseudo-statists! Yes, it might sound strange, but many anarchists are in fact as much statists as are minarchists. It seems even anarchists cannot in effect break free from the statist thinking in terms of guarantees and fixed systems.
One has to ask, what kind of world is...

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October 30, 2006
It is quite scary how indoctrinated people get in school nowadays. Asking any normal teenager about politics, he or she will quickly and proudly declare they cherish "democracy." That's just the way it is, it is kind of a trump--say you are for democratic (put whatever you like here) and you win any discussion.
Democracy has become a religion, and thus...

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September 8, 2006
The libertarian strategy for rolling back the State and reestablishing individual liberty and natural rights seems to divide the movement into two main factions. There are those who sincerely believe in slow progress through political means, that the State's powers should be abolished one by one and at a slow pace. And there are those revolutionaries who are...

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August 24, 2006
Yes, I should have done this a long time ago. And when the editor encouraged everybody to write about Strike The Root for its fifth anniversary, I thought this is the time. There is so much I want to say, but I just seem to never get around to saying it. So I missed the chance again. But better late than never, I guess. Here it goes.
I've been a market anarchist...

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In a world of left and right, libertarians should fit nicely somewhere in-between or ' even better ' in a neither-nor position. But still libertarians tend to identify much more with the right wing in politics rather than with the left wing. How is this so?

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Most of us have tried discussing issues considered somewhat radical with a number of average Joes. Such an endeavor usually ends with frustration and a total failure of communication; the statist retreats from reason and logic to feeling when his views are challenged. It seems impossible to break through to these people.

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Most of us have heard the expression that goes something like: If you don't vote, you have no right to be unhappy with the State, politics, or the political class. The logic is that if you don't vote, you have already given up your right to complain about the effects.
The interesting point in this is that one, according to this logic, seems to earn a right to complain from the...

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It is time again. In September this year the state of Sweden will hold democratic elections for parliament. And with that comes enormous media coverage; it seems everything worth reporting on the news is politics, politics, politics. The media can't get enough of this madness; they write column after column, page up and page down telling everybody about propositions for new...

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I don't have a television set. I do own one, but it is in a box somewhere in the attic (I think).
When I tell people of this, they usually think I'm crazy: 'How the hell can you do without television?' Well, it's easy, especially with my libertarian convictions and anarchist morality. I haven't missed a moment of TV gawking since I threw the set out. Since you probably share (...

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In a free society, there's plenty of room for conspiracy theories. Anyone with a strange idea or a vivid imagination has the full right to spread those thoughts to anyone willing to listen. It might sound pretty strange that obvious idiots should have the right to make idiots out of other people, but that's part of what comes with freedom: Nobody can say what must or must not be...

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In lessons one through three we have learned how to create your own empire (lesson one), how to maintain power (lesson two), and how to deal with uprisings and rebellions (lesson three). It is time to evaluate great contemporary and historical rulers and see to what extent they have managed to be true despots. This also gives us a chance to see the real effects of acting as a...

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This first lesson on how to become or be a government could also be called How To Trick People Into Eagerly Rejecting Their Right To And Power Over Their Own Lives And Willingly Subject Their Whole Worlds To You. What I will teach you here is simply that: how to make people believe you are actually saving them while destroying their liberty and suffocating everything they are...

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Libertarians generally find themselves puzzled at how to bring about the free society they envision. It seems almost impossible to bring down the State to its 'minimalist state' form, and even harder to abolish it altogether and secure a state of anarchy. How do we do it? What should our strategy be? Where should we start in our campaign to de-program, de-brainwash, enlighten,...

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One of the questions facing proponents of anarchism is how to deal with criminals when there is no law and no State. The role of the latter can rather easily be fulfilled by arguing for a system of private entrepreneurs or corporations taking on criminals for a fee. But it does not, in the world of the statist, prove the enforcement of the rule of law. Besides, exactly what law...

Two thousand years ago, if one believes the Bible, Jesus asked the Pharisees to 'let him who is without sin cast the first stone.' In the biblical story, the stone was not cast since no one was without sin. In the real world, however, sinners will not refrain from throwing stones: in politics the one who first casts the stone is also probably the greatest sinner. 'Attack is the best defense,'...

It has already been shown by other columnists on STR who should bear responsibility (but doesn't) for the disaster in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. This is all a rather unique situation, since columnists worldwide seem to agree that government is responsible, even though most stress it is responsible only for the failure to supply enough help in time. So what we have here is actually a...

From time to time one wonders if there is any chance for freedom whatsoever. People just don't want to listen, and they really do not understand the dangers of power. At least not in the sense we do. How come people so eagerly support a leader and so decisively oppose liberty?

When discussing the market vs. politics, we libertarians usually claim the former is voluntary, productive, creative, wealth-creating etc., while the latter is coercive, destructive, uncreative, wealth-destroying. It all seems to fit the ideal model of the world. Who would not agree on voluntary being better than coercive, productive being better than destructive, and so on?

A minute may seem insignificant; it is but 1/1440 of a day or 1/525,600 of a year. But in politics and public policy, one insignificant minute can mean an enormous difference. This was the case when the hands of millions of clocks and watches in Sweden took the insignificant step from May 31, 11:59 p.m. to June 1, 12:00 a.m. Nine million people went to bed in one world, and woke up in another.

Ever had anyone ask you what your favorite movie is? Of course you have. Most people have. It is one of those questions people tend to ask one another just to keep the conversation going. I play that game too'I answer the question in that same manner: to keep the conversation going. When someone asks me about my favorite movie I usually reply Enemy of the State, where Will Smith is the target of...

The socialist anarchist movement has realized something we should really take to heart: the idea of decentralization. Even though socialist and communist anarchists tend to favor forceful decentralization in federations of labor unions'and the abolishment of voluntary exchange of services in the marketplace'we should really turn to them: for inspiration and guidance. The lesson they have learned...

The National Food Administration in Sweden today (May 18) issued a warning: don't drink German milk. The NFA is truly worried about the milk's effects on public health. In Sweden , health is a big issue (that's why we have at least three different authorities 'protecting' public health) and consequently it is not only on the news'it is The News of the day. On the hour every hour I get to hear...

I frequently receive a lot of e-mails to my web site Anarchism.net. Most of them are sent by anarchists with socialist preferences basically claiming I am the most evil man alive, and that I have 'no idea' what anarchism really is. I always respond with a standardized 'why libertarianism is anarchism' e-mail, and usually I never hear from them again.
It is obvious these people see me as their...

It is strange how libertarians, anarchist and statist alike, consider voting an important part of political life, and a way to change the world for the better. As has been covered by a multitude of great libertarian thinkers elsewhere, voting has immense moral implications. But since so many libertarians stand in line to cast their votes, one has to conclude these moral or philosophical...

The United States ' occupation of Iraq is generally referred to as the 'liberation' in the news since the state's guns aim to make the new Iraq a democracy. Recently on CNN ( 5/21/04 ), this 'liberation project' was analyzed by experts, who agreed that the success of the project could lead to an eventual democratization of all countries in the Middle East .
In the current debate, the (new)...

I have received a number of responses from people reading my column Here, Please Read my Pamphlet!. It seems many agree with my saying that libertarians really should lead libertarian lives, but that most libertarians find it very hard and risky to find freedom 'within' the state. I agree that it can be difficult. But I did not propose that you should completely hide from the life you are living...

All around the world, people in the libertarian movement are working day and night to get people to notice the libertarian alternative to the war of politics. Columns are written, pamphlets and magazines distributed, campaigns organized, and parties are even formed to take part in elections. The energy and efforts of thousands are directed towards spreading the ideas of liberty, making people...

Even though collectivists recently have had a few drawbacks and have been defeated in some areas, they have gained control of philosophy in society. Our world is falling prey to the terrors following collectivism and mysticism. This is what people in the future will call the Endarkening: the destructive era following the productive centuries of Enlightenment and Industrialization.
Thanks to...

You could say I hate the news. I watch it all the time to keep updated, but I never believe what is reported as most people do. I simply see the media and its 'news' reporting as a somewhat commercialized state function.
Many consider the media a 'third power.' It supposedly has the means and possibility to control whatever the government and state are up to. In a democracy, the media, closely...

The totalitarian left is doing what it can to resist the powers of capitalism, and to restrain the possibilities in the marketplace. Their goal with the big government policy is partly to choke to death the free enterprise and spontaneous wealth-creating activities we know as the Market. Their quest must, however, fail; it must fail because it is fundamentally flawed.
Rule number one in long-...

Justice and the enforcement of individuals' rights is probably the most essential and important part of libertarian philosophy. As a matter of fact, many libertarians world-wide cling to the idea of the state as an evil 'need-to-be' monopoly source of justice and order in society. The state thus works as a 'guarantee' for these essential human values, fundamental to civilized society. Even such...

The history of man is a history of rule or ambition to rule. It is not, as Marx claimed, a history of constant class struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat, even though class struggle may be derived from the fundamental division of society into 'rulers' and 'ruled.' An important part of this history is the continuous 'race to the top' among self-centered power seekers, trying to gather as...

In The Spontaneous Redistribution of Wealth Part I: Division of Production Cost, I illustrated the production side of the market in the terms of the Left. I claimed libertarian laissez-faire capitalism is a system more fair, just and equal in any terms, than any system engineered by the left. Liberty naturally evolves into a situation of equality that benefits all, while a socialist system...

What moves the world may very well be the driving force of individuals acting in their rational self-interest. But what moves the Left is the redistribution of such strong individuals' created wealth.
Redistribution of wealth is widely known to be a means to achieve the great value of equality among men ' equality in political as well as economic, cultural, and social terms. Socialists claim...

Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize laureate in economics, argues for democracy as a universal value in The Journal of Democracy (vol. 10, no. 3, 1999). But the only strong case he succeeds in delivering is how indoctrinated he is of democratism, and how ignorant he is of obvious alternatives, and democracy's limits and shortcomings.

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August 24, 2006
Yes, I should have done this a long time ago. And when the editor encouraged everybody to write about Strike The Root for its fifth anniversary, I thought this is the time. There is so much I want to say, but I just seem to never get around to saying it. So I missed the chance again. But better late than never, I guess. Here it goes.
I've been a market anarchist...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
My previous two articles on minarchism versus anarchism [1, 2], and why minarchism is “evil,” have stirred up quite a debate online.[1] This was expected, since minarchists desperately want to see themselves as radical (whereas compared to anarchists they clearly are not) and anarchists almost as desperately seek alliances and ideological kindred...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
For the five-year anniversary, I wrote a column about the value of a site like Strike The Root. I argued that the main problem to making anarchism an attractive social theory is its lack of guarantees. Rather than basing our worldview on the illusion of a stable and never-changing core to which we can fix and around which we can organize our...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
Election Day means there are a lot of people walking around proudly carrying a sticker on their collar or lapel: “I Voted.” It bothered me at first that they would take pride in such ugly, immoral, and destructive behavior and that they so urgently wanted me to see that they had cast a ballot. I do not particularly like that these...

By Per Bylund
Exclusive to STR
These are troublesome times: the police state is literally only months away (if not here already), Big Brother already has full control of what everybody’s up to, and governments wage numerous wars while taxing their poor populations to ridiculous degrees. Yet in the midst of all this darkness, after a century of endarkening, there are signs of...

Exclusive to STR
The official truth is that voting is a glorious thing, that it may even be a democratic duty. After all, most free countries have a history of bloodshed and war, which was the only way of finally getting rid of terror and oppression to establish Democracy: where we, the people, rule ourselves and there are no kings, lords, or absolute rulers. In such a world, are we...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
I recently participated in an online discussion on gay marriage, an issue that was stated to be “such a sure thing” that my views could be dismissed at the outset. And, I suspect, laughed at. Why? Because, it was argued, government’s opening up the state-enforced institution of marriage to gay couples “decreases” discrimination...

By Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
Conservatives and libertarians often claim an inherent value in the Rule of Law, a concept that to anarchists may seem a bit strange and, frankly, quite evil. Of course, most of us would accept the notion that predictable, principle-kind laws are much better than arbitrary rulings by a power elite (be it one man or many). Some would even claim...

By Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
What is fascinating in this day and age is how the definition of previously well-known concepts mysteriously have changed. I’m not thinking of e.g. the word “defense,” which nowadays seems to have a much broader meaning and includes waging wars, occupying foreign nations, and having permanent military bases in almost 200 foreign...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
John deLaubenfels responds to my previous column on minarchists being “the enemy.” His response is a case in point. Even though it is surely not his intent, his “quick response” directly supports the thesis of my original column. This is also true with most of the e-mails and comments I have seen by those disagreeing...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
Libertarians want to roll back government to a much less oppressive size. In this goal, libertarian minarchists and anarchists often stand together and aim for the same goals, at least short term. In a limited sense, this may not be such a stupid idea. After all, pushing back the powers of government is a good thing, is it not?
But what...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
News agencies report on another potential nuclear threat from North Korea, which has developed an advanced program for enriching uranium. Granted, nuclear weapons are extremely dangerous – and they are especially dangerous in the hands of nutcases such as Kim Jong-il. However, the media misses the point as they urgently run in the direction pointed out...

The history of man is a history of rule or ambition to rule. It is not, as Marx claimed, a history of constant class struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat, even though class struggle may be derived from the fundamental division of society into 'rulers' and 'ruled.' An important part of this history is the continuous 'race to the top' among self-centered power seekers, trying to gather as...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
John deLaubenfels responds to my previous column on minarchists being “the enemy.” His response is a case in point. Even though it is surely not his intent, his “quick response” directly supports the thesis of my original column. This is also true with most of the e-mails and comments I have seen by those disagreeing...

Column by Per Bylund.
Exclusive to STR
Election Day means there are a lot of people walking around proudly carrying a sticker on their collar or lapel: “I Voted.” It bothered me at first that they would take pride in such ugly, immoral, and destructive behavior and that they so urgently wanted me to see that they had cast a ballot. I do not particularly like that these...